EARHART WRECK FOUND?

[EHM-1749 Hector]

A report from Papua New Guinea says the wreck of an aircraft that might be the Lockheed Electra flown by Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan has been found on a reef near Bougainville Island near Papua New Guinea. The Papua New Guinea Post Courier is reporting "armed men" are guarding the area over a reef off Matsungan Island where an aircraft matching the description of Earhart's plane has been found. Divers are now checking the wreck and inquiries are flooding in from all over the world. There is no word on whether any human remains have been recovered.

If the plane is Earhart's, it will help to solve a 74-year-old mystery surrounding her disappearance on a leg of a pan Pacific flight leg from New Guinea to Howell Island in July of 1937. Local sources told the newspaper the existence of the wreck has been known for years. Government officials say it belongs to Papua New Guinea and they'll be defending that claim.

[EHM-2585 Dan]

It is a great story, and one that it would be very cool if it were true. Unfortunately it has been suggested that it is unlikely to be Earhart's plane. The Electra was somewhere near Howland Island when it dissapeared, and had around 4 hours of fuel on board. Given that the distance from Howland Island to the wreck is around 2000 miles and the Electra could only fly at 150mph they would have run out of fuel way before reaching that point.

This link gives the detail... http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20110304-323445/US-expert-dismisses-Earhart-claim-in-PNG

[EHM-1749 Hector]

You are right, Dan. From time to time this subject comes to the surface eventhough there is a continuous project by  TIGHAR to find AE's plane. We need to remember though that the Itasca crew never heard much less saw the plane and that the radio communication was very weak which could indicate that AE was not in the vecinity of Howland. There are thousands of books and articles about this subject. I have been interested since I was a young boy. In 2006 there was a project for sim aviators called Amelia Earhart World Flight Commemorative by Charles Wood and I invited some friends to do it but nobody was interested.
The Earhart World Flight commemoration was designed to be flown by the Lockheed L10E Electra, the aircraft that Amelia Earhart flew. Dave Bitzer and Norman Hancock upgraded and customized the excellent FS-Design Berlin Electra so that it accurately simulated Earhart's L10E.
The upgraded aircraft had improved flight dynamics, proper long-range fuel tanks, custom panels with new gauges; the Cambridge Engine Analyzer so crucial in Earhart's flights, a Sextant, a Drift Meter, and a pop-up E6-B Flight Computer.  They even designed some of the scenaries of airports that were active by 1937 including one in my country which I visited many times. I have had the chance also to visit the airport were she refueled in Paramaribo, Suriname.
I started the flight trying to follow the exact itinerary but could only complete 14 out of the 21 stages because my workload at the time didn't allow me to continue. So I have my L10E Electra waiting for me since July 29, 2007 but I plan to start all over again from Oakland next year to commemorate 75 years of the flight.
Interesting to know I wanted to use the AE Logo and asked for TIGHAR's authorization but Mr. Gillespie refused on the grounds that I was not part of TIGHAR. 
The project people offered two versions for the plane: the original  with an Sperry Autopilot (only wing leveler and heading) and other with the AP including altitude hold. No VORs but with ADFs. No FS Passengers. No FSC8. No GPS. The real thing. The way they did it. And I can tell that it was not easy. So I imagine how it was for them.

[EHM-1465 Dominic]

I didn't realise that anyone had created such a good replica of Earhart's plane for Flightsim Hector - is it for FS9, FSX or both? Is there a link to download it? I'd be quite interested to try it out myself, always fun to go back to the way aviators flew and navigated in the early days from time to time

[EHM-2097 Andrei]

The best we can hope is the Papua New Guinea wreck being identified - although this is much a matter of luck after such a long time. However, identifying the aircraft type coul be an easier task - and still this would be a major breakthrough.

A WWII aircraft would be hard to identifiy, as many were lost in the area. A pre-WWII model, on the other hand, would tell a lot more as these were not quite mass-produced, and not many aircraft on a given type could possibly lie in that area of the Pacific.

Eventually, even if it's not Amelia Earhart's plane, the wreckage is probably worth investigating; it surely has a story to tell. Whoever ditched or crashed there has been reported missing somewhere, sometime and it helps to finally learn the truth about what happened.